Booming Northumberland business wants to build new base

Ben O'Connell

A north Northumberland firm is looking to build new premises in order to accommodate current and future expansion of the business.

TreeLocate (Europe) Ltd, which imports, manufactures and arranges artificial trees, plants and associated floral items for customers all over the world, is currently based on Belford Industrial Estate.

But the company, formed in 1994 by Mark and Jonathan Nesbitt, has now applied to create a new manufacturing building, with offices, showroom and parking, on the other side of the A1, on farmland to the south-west of the Bricksheds junction (the southern entrance into Belford).

A statement submitted with the application explains that the business, which employs more than 40 local staff, is ‘now at a crossroads in terms of future expansion’ and ‘desperately needs more production and warehousing facilities’.

The new site is required as ‘all the avenues for purchasing more land immediately adjacent to the current industrial estate are not available and the current site is at full capacity’.

TreeLocate recently had to rent a temporary warehouse in Cramlington to enable a large contract to be fulfilled, but this was not ideal as local staff have had to be transported down there.

The statement adds that the building ‘has been designed for future expansion’, up to a total of 2,880m² over two floors. The development would include 220m² of offices, a 160m² showroom, 204m² of workspace/store, plus 66m² of staff facilities/toilets.

The modern building would feature natural stone, Siberian larch, painted render, glass panelling and a steel structure, supporting grey aluminium sheeting to match the colour of windows and doors with a roof of solar panels.

The access would be located on the B6349 into Belford around 150 metres from the A1 junction.